1. What Your Book Will be About and Why Would Someone Would Want to Read (Buy) It

This is a book idea having to do with poetry; it’s history, the creation of poetry and why this matters in our world. By delving into the origins of poetry I will try to show how it has changed from an oral tradition to the writing of verse and how this has shaped literature. I will use the act of creating poetry as a way to illustrate its very nature as a form, and spotlight some of the key poems and poets through the history of the written word.

5. How You Would Describe Your Book’s Content

The opening chapter will deal with the origins of poetry. This will entail some of the earliest recorded instances of poetry which will largely be in the form of song. Which cultures stood out in their use of verse/song and why? Why did people sing these stories/songs? How did these stories and tales pass down through generations and what did this say about the culture? Other chapters could be:

Ancient culture and the shock of the new

Music of poetry and the poetry of music

Outlaw poets

Poetry as a new voice

words as weapons

The modern visits the past

Verse and the restructuring of class

PROJECT PART II

After reading Rabiner’s prologue and introduction, I began to think of my idea in a different light. Her information regarding how trades are stocked on the shelves of booksellers was very enlightening. However, I was not caught completely off guard by this. We live in an era where not only book sales but all other forms of human interaction have been codified, listed, tested and schemed for a sustained and lasting impact on future sales. It seemed strange that her quote at the very beginning of the book bears little resemblance to what amounts to pure marketing strategy; “The books the thing.”

Some of her main points are things I have thought about time and time again and have been the reason why I’d never ventured to write anything before. Well, at least, nothing aimed at serious publication. I also considered changing my topic in light of this new information to investigate how we as human beings are becoming increasingly more like the products which sit upon the shelf but I decided to instead stick with my initial idea however abstract, because: 1. I feel it’s very important and 2. because I like a challenge.

In fact, while I do enjoy writing I am not wedded to it and I believe this helps me to be more flexible in the molding of my ideas into something more easily digestible. I’m not saying that I want to write for the lowest common reader, (though this might well have given me the opportunity to include drawings and I Looove to draw, but I digress.) nor do I want to appeal to the academic snob either. The fact that I never really know who my audience is has always been a liberating force to me as a writer. After reading Mrs. Rabiner’s intro, I can see I’m going to have to construct a very unusual bunch of scenarios if I want to keep myself and my potential readers interests, whoever they may be. Perhaps I am completely wrong and it is closer to the bottom of the scale after all. Sharpening up those colored pencils now.